575 ISSN 1013-8471 Journal for Semitics 24/2 (2015) 575–593 ANOTHER LOOK AT THE FUNCTION OF אָ שַ מIN PROPHETIC LITERATURE Gudrun Lier & Lucas Cornelis Muller Department of Applied Communicative Skills University of Johannesburg Bunting Road Campus Auckland Park 2006 South Africa E-mail: gelier@uj.ac.za; tochein@gmail.com (Received 09/10/2015; Accepted 26/10/2015) ABSTRACT In this article some of the previous considerations on the meaning and function of ʠָ שʔʮ in the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible are critically considered. The function of ʔ ʮ ʠָ שis then reviewed by systematically analysing its use in various textual contexts throughout the Hebrew Bible to identify how this term was applied in popular speech, literature, and translation. An attempt is made to categorise ʠָ שʔʮ into specific semantic domains in order to determine how the various ways in which ʠָ שʔʮ is used in prophetic literature compare with each other. It is suggested that the ʠָ שʔʮ-label not only came to be used as an emphatic marker but also functioned as a literary device, more specifically a mnemonic bridge, to bind maśśā’-prophecies together intertextually to form a virtual corpus. INTRODUCTION A number of investigative studies have been conducted on the meaning and function of ʠָ שʔʮ in the prophetic literature of the Hebrew Scriptures, some of which include comprehensive reviews of previous attempts to explain the use of this term either lexically (cf. Sellin 1930; Procksch 1930; De Boer 1948; Lambert 1955; Tsevat 1958; Naudé 1969; Calvin & Owen 1989) or as a form-critical tag (cf. Weis 1992; 1 Melugin & Sweeney 1994; Sweeney 1996; Floyd 2002) with the latest study conducted by Boda (2006:338–357), which classifies ʠָ שʔʮ as an editorial marker. This article seeks to expand on previous attempts to explain the function of ʠָ שʔʮ by categorising the occurrence of ʠָ שʔʮ in line with its various semantic domains (De Blois 2002; cf. Evans & Green 2006). 1 See Weis (1986). Although this work was never published, Weis did provide a précis in Weis (1992).